After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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Shop in store or visit Ashley.com today. Raise your hand if you want to talk about basketball. Okay, I don't really. I'm not in basketball mode by any stretch of the imagination though. I know the WNBA playoffs started this week in the Las Vegas Aces are the top seed. I've got a real good friend, actually the friend who I hiked the Grand Canyon with in April who works for the Dallas Wings and they're really excited because they open the playoffs coming up on Friday night. And they host the Atlanta Dream in Game 1 so they're buzzing in Dallas over not just the Cowboys but also the Wings, the WNBA. So yes, I have seen a little bit of basketball and also the World Cup, so the FIBA World Cup with the United States failing to even stand on the podium, losing to Canada in the bronze medal game. And when I did an interview on our Toronto affiliate, the Fan 590, and actually it's a nationwide network, north of the border.

Not across the pond, but north of the border, our friends to the north I should say. And so I did an interview with them on Tuesday morning immediately following the Aaron Rodgers injury, the Bills losing in the walk off punt return touchdown. And after we talked football, one of the hosts asked me about basketball.

She said, I hope you don't mind. I'm going to talk to you. I want to talk about basketball for a second. I thought, uh-oh, I have not been paying any attention to basketball. But her only question was about LeBron saying that he would like to play in the Olympics again because they're going to Paris next time and how he might like to go out with this last run for the red, white, and blue.

So it wasn't a tough question. We could talk, though, about the latest move by the NBA to curb load management. I know you're cheering. I'm cheering. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.

We get this party started. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, our Facebook page too. We've got our YouTube channel always available for you. Thank you for all the kind words about the wedding, the wedding invites. You're very sweet. It's funny because there are people that I actually know personally who are just now seeing it on social media.

Colleagues or just longtime friends of mine that, you know, people you knew in college and so you're connected on social, but you don't still stay in touch. Does that make sense? Anyway, so people are still just finding out, which is funny because I feel like I've been singing it from the rooftops. Back to the NBA. The league, through its board of governors, has voted on a brand new policy to limit the number of games and the number of times that stars can sit out games. All right, so Adam Silver and the board of governors have ratified the player participation policy. That's what it's called. The PPP.

Not the OPP, but the PPP. So the NBA, the NBA Players Association, players and teams, blah, blah, blah. He says they're all on the same page. I don't know that I agree with that, considering how extensive load management has been in recent years.

In fact, what did we hear from Darvin Ham last year? This is what load management is about. He actually told us that load management is about making sure his older guys, in the case of Anthony Davis, more injury-prone guys, that they're still available in the playoffs.

That's what he said. This is what load management is all about. But Adam Silver believes that the concept of preserving your stars and keeping them fresh and well-rested, trying to get them through an 82-game regular season-plus playoffs, he thinks it's out of hand. This is ultimately about the fans and that we've taken this too far. I mean, this is an acknowledgement that it's gotten away from us a bit and that particularly, I think, when you see young, healthy players who are resting and it becomes maybe even more notion of stature around the league as opposed to absolute needed rest or it's just part of being an NBA player that you rest on certain days.

And that's what we're trying to move away from. It shouldn't be a regular part of an NBA player's season that there are days you just don't play. Maybe it's the second night of a back-to-back on a road trip. Or maybe it's the third game in four nights on a road trip. Now here's a couple of things to keep in mind. Number one, the NBA is negotiating a new media rights deal.

And that means ka-ching. It means there could be a bunch of bidders that drive the price up, especially if we're talking about streaming. Every other league has gotten into it now where select games, or in the case of the NFL, every Thursday night game is streamed.

But Apple TV, Peacock, Paramount Plus, Amazon Prime, YouTube TV now, these are all outlets that have paid big time money to stream various sporting events. So here's the NBA who's trying to negotiate a new media rights deal, whether it's with one network, whether it's a variety of outlets, they want to be able to say to the media companies with whom they're negotiating, we're going to have the stars available, shining brightly more often. Because as you can imagine, there are TV networks, maybe even streaming companies who are saying, wait a minute, why am I going to pay all this money for an 82 game season when stars don't have to play more than 65 games if they're healthy?

And that is the current rule, or it was the rule until a few hours ago. Players were supposed to play in 65 regular season games, otherwise they weren't eligible for awards. Okay, so the caveat being if you're a superstar, and you've already won a bunch of awards, do you even care? Or if you're a star player, and you don't really have a shot at winning MVP, or defensive player of the year, whatever. I know a lot of these guys get bonuses and stand to earn incentives if they do win awards, but if you're not likely to get one, well then, what do you care about the 65 game limit? So they have been working toward this goal, meaning the NBA and its Board of Governors, the owners, have been working toward this goal of making sure that the stars have to play more often.

But this is the farthest they've taken it. Not only are there some tougher policies we're going to get to momentarily, but there's more punishment, greater fines for star players who sit out games. Especially those on national TV, and remember they've got this new in-season tournament, a la soccer, a la the Euroleagues and MLS, they've got a brand new in-season tournament. And what Adam Silver is saying is, we don't want it to be a 65 game season. We want it to be an 82 game season, where the stars are as committed as we are to seeing this thing through to 82 games.

Alright, so here's the new policy. The new policy is that if you are a star, and they do have a way to define it, you cannot sit out back to backs. If you're healthy, and you're a star, the way the NBA defines it, you cannot sit out.

Right? And you can't have multiple all-stars sitting out on the same night. Okay, so if you're a team, not only is there increased discipline slash punishment in fines for star players who sit out games, and it sounds like the fines will be greater for those games that are supposed to be nationally televised, but multiple all-stars sitting out together for regular season games is a no-no. They define this as the new player participation policy. I think there's an acknowledgement across the league that we need to return to that principle, that this is an 82 game league. And that of course doesn't mean that we're turning the clock back, that players are expected to play through injuries, or that players frankly never need rest.

But I think there's a statement of a principle that if you're a healthy player in this league, that the expectation is that you're going to play. This is the hill that Adam Silver is willing to die on. He's been all about this. He hates the idea of tanking.

He hates load management. He says it's all about the fans. Here's how the NBA defines a star player. Someone who's made the all-star or all NBA teams in any of the three previous seasons.

So it's going to be a rolling clock, if you will. If you were an all-star three years ago, but not the last two years, you're still considered a star for the purposes of this player participation policy. Now you have to have multiple stars, right?

So that's also part of the equation. You can't set out multiple stars. The league doesn't want stars sitting out back to backs, of course, but also doesn't want a night where you've got three all-stars and they all take... This is something that it feels like Greg Popovich did so often, but it's become much more prominent in the league. 25 of the 30 teams in the NBA have multiple stars as defined by the rule, which I just indicated to you.

An all-star or all NBA in any of the three previous seasons and 50 players, which is more than 10% of the league. These are impacted by the new rules. It's fairly significant. And the fines, well, they're also hefty. $100,000 for the first offense, a quarter mill for the second offense, and a million for each... A million more than the previous penalty.

How about that? So it's essentially $1.25 million if you get to a third offense. Now who gets the fine? The organization or does the player have to pay you that too? Well, I would think in most cases the organization would pay it. The team would pay it because of the team... Yeah, if the team is allowing the player to sit out. Now I suppose if it's the player who's saying, absolutely not, I'm not playing, I'm fatigued, blah, blah, blah, whatever, maybe the organization passes it along. But I would think if the team sanctioned it or the team was okay with it, then in many cases the player could say, hey, you gave me permission, so yeah. Teams have to manage their rosters and make sure that no more than one star player is unavailable for the same game. So an example would be with the Lakers. Lebron and Anthony Davis can't both sit out on the same night.

The Sixers, oh shoot, we can't call James Harden a star. I guess we can. Is he still on the team?

I think so. Joelle Embiid and James Harden can't both sit out on the same night. The guy's a Hall of Famer. The star players must be available for national TV games and the in-season tournament. So if you're healthy, you have to play in this new in-season baby that the NBA has come up with. And also, here's another piece that I think a lot of people are bothered by. When a player is trade bait or when he is likely to be traded and teams are trying to protect him from getting injured so that they increase or keep the trade, well, the prospects of what they'll get in return, the trade worth, you're no longer allowed to sit that player or reduce, like drastically reduce his playing time. So think about it.

Here's a great example. Anthony Davis, a few years ago, wanted out of New Orleans, wanted to go to LA. New Orleans didn't like what the Lakers were offering in return. And remember, Anthony Davis refused to play.

At least that was the report. And so for half a season, but he also made it miserable for the locker room. He wanted out. He didn't want to stay. They talk about now how disrupting it was. That was still Monty Williams, right?

Wasn't he still in New Orleans then? How disrupting it was, how rough it was in the locker room, and how divisive it became with Anthony Davis. And so he sat out.

Now, you can't do that. But sometimes there are teams who don't allow their star players to get out there or star players that they plan on trading at the deadline or trading at the end of the year. They don't want them on the court. So the Derek Carr situation. I know it's football, but that would not fly in the NBA anymore. Where Derek Carr essentially got sent out of the facilities, leave, go. We're benching you, but we don't want you here. Again, a little bit different because he was benched, but they wouldn't be able to do this in the NBA.

Just all of a sudden stop playing a star because they plan on trading him and they don't want him to get injured. Yeah. See that? I understand that, though.

Because that's just business. Yeah. It is, except think about the people who bought tickets to see that guy play. Right? That's the thing. But there's like a re- I get it.

Especially on national TV. That guy's not sitting, he's not playing anymore. And then one more as I was talking about. One-game absences.

This is what they're shooting for. They do not want star players to sit out back-to-back games. So one-game absences. They have to try to balance that between home and road games. But the key is the league wants you to attempt to sit out your star players when you're home and not away.

For obvious reasons. Because in some cases, east versus west, these star players are only in the visiting city. They're only visiting a city one time during the course of a season. And there of course are plenty of fans who bought their tickets just for the purposes of seeing that star play. So Draymond Green and Steph Curry won't be able to sit out the same game. For load management, if they're injured it's a completely different story. But yeah, think about any team out there who has two stars. As defined by the policy, which is you are an all-star or all-NBA any of the previous three seasons. So there's a lot of teams that are affected. A lot of players that are affected by this.

I gotta ask. Once you said the in-season tournament, I kind of connected a dot on this. And I love this new rule.

I think it's great. I want all the players to play more. But do you think that they're really seriously trying to implement this because they don't want their in-season, new in-season tournament to be ruined or whatever next season?

They want everyone to be playing all that games and keep the attention on that mid-season tournament? Oh absolutely. That's why it's part of it.

Well no that's not it. That's only a part of it. As I say, you're not allowed to sit out nationally televised games either. That's another thing is all-stars are supposed to be available for national TV.

So it is really more about the media rights deal and being able to say to the media partners. Don't worry. You'll get the best of what we've got.

Don't worry. You'll get the best players. When we tell you that you can air this game, when we make this game a nationally televised event, well then you'll get the star power that you're paying for. So it allows them to charge more money. So in theory it's for the better of the sport but really it just comes down to the money. Yeah.

Oh yeah. I mean I do believe that Adam Silver cares about the fans paying money. There's been a major uproar and outrage over it where fans buy these tickets. It may be the only game they're going to all year because it's expensive. They're really excited and then they don't get to see any of the stars. And how often does it happen to where you and I will be excited about a game.

We'll see a matchup. Maybe it is a nationally televised game and you tune in and realize, especially toward the end of the season, nobody's playing. It's all the time. I mean just being a Brooklyn Nets fan and for the last few years when they had KD, Kyrie. I feel like it deflates everything when you go into the game or you see the lineup come out or you see the reserves, the injuries. And it's just Kevin Durant out, Kyrie Irving out or whatever. Rest, rest.

You didn't even want to watch me anymore? It really ruins the whole game. It does.

I mean it really does, I think, not only put fans on the offensive against the NBA, but also it causes them to be more leery of the product too. And what's out there. Our team's tanking and just manipulating this.

The load management. Feeling like they're mailing it in. It's an 82 game season so who cares? Which, let's be fair, there is a lot of that.

But that's what the NBA and the owners want because they don't want to give up any home games and the money that they get for tickets. It's always about the bottom line. What a bad press room, by the way. Oh, I miss him. Okay, on Twitter, A Law Radio. On our Facebook page, you can find us there as well. We're going to do the first round of QB news coming up as we look ahead to week two. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

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Check eligibility and schedule this season's COVID-19 shot on the CDC site vaccines dot gov. Sponsored by Pfizer and BioNTech. Touchdown, Kansas City. Off the echo again. No, Herbert keeps it in. Touchdown, charges. Herbert with his second of the day.

Here's the snap. Josh going to keep it himself and run it again inside the five. Into the end zone. Touchdown, Buffalo. Josh Allen, nine yard touchdown run. The Bills respond and then some. It's time for QB News on After Hours. We're always pleased to bring you QB News with our special partner. This portion of the show brought to you by Wesley Financial stuck in a timeshare and won out.

Contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at Wesley Financial Group dot com. We begin week two tonight in the NFL, and that is a matchup between two teams that made the playoffs last year. Of course, Philadelphia, the reigning NFC champion, the Minnesota Vikings. Well, they already lost once to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and now they're on the road in Philadelphia. Now, if you remember, if you're watching the Patriots Eagles game on Sunday was pouring down rain.

It was pretty nasty. But after the Eagles jumped out to a 14 nothing lead because of the turnovers right by the the Patriots, the kind of handed them actually was a 16 nothing lead at one point with a field goal tacked on there. The Eagles didn't score a touchdown after that. They were struggling. They had a ton of three and outs. And so Jalen Hurts was talking about the offense. And people are wondering whether or not it was slower because it was week one or because it was just kind of getting back into the flow of a season. No, I don't think there was an adjustment period there.

They would prepare really well and obviously put a lot of time into it. You know, and I think for us, we just continue to grow through that. You know, we continue to grow. You know, we all have standards. I have standards and are very high.

But I think the reality for it is, you know, I've never reported to the standards of other people on the expectations of other people or their opinions. And so we're centrally focused on the things that we can control, our preparation and that. You know, just moving forward and continue to strive to be the best team we can be. Jalen Hurts never answers a football question without a philosophy lesson. He is always big picture perspective. And as I look up, he's on my TV screen here on NFL Network. Kirk Cousins, we've got to learn a lot more about him and his family in the Netflix series, The Quarterback or Quarterback. And now here is an opportunity on Amazon Prime nationally televised game, sort of, in which he's not fared well in the past. Proving himself, though, with all eyes on the Vikings. I think you always have a desire to go out and play well, to prove yourself, to earn it. But I've never, you know, felt entitled taking the field.

And so I kind of always feel like I've got to go out and prove it. And I think this week is no different. Looking forward to the kickoff to week number two. Will the Vikings fall into an 0-2 hole or will they make a statement at Philadelphia? You know, those fans, those Eagles fans, they'll be waiting for them.

Me, me, me, me, me, warming up their voices even now. The Vikings lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield had no turnovers. I think he only got sacked one time. And the report is out there that he was decoding the defensive signals that the Vikings were trying to use on the other side of the line of scrimmage. When it comes down to that, you're always trying to find tendencies of defense. Just those in-game adjustments that you're trying to, you know, trying to find those tendencies.

You know, sometimes it's a little different than others. But that was why, like I said, at postgame, it was a chess match there in the first half. Kind of had some stall out drives. They did a very, very good job. I mean, I can't credit Brian Flores enough for how they were schemed up against us. So, yeah, it took us a little bit to adjust.

But, yeah, you try and find every advantage possible to win. How many people picked the Vikings in that game considering it was in Minneapolis and the Buccaneers were starting Baker Mayfield? But he was solid. Not like he was dynamic, but he was solid. Kirk Cousins had better passing numbers. Justin Jefferson had 150 receiving yards. But Baker had a couple of touchdown passes and no turnovers. I don't really care. No, you should care about the turnovers. Also, did you hear him take a shot at the Houston Astros? So, again, people are saying, hey, you were decoding the Minnesota Vikings' defensive signals. Isn't that cheating?

I know I'm in Tampa, but I'm a Texas Rangers fan, not a Houston Astros fan, so we're not going to condone that. Zing. Such a personality he has. It's still there even though he's been sufficiently humbled by his last two years or year and a half in the NFL.

All right, Todd Bowles, what does Baker bring to the table at the quarterback position? Why do you like him there? His mindset is unbelievable. He's a player's player. He's a warrior. He is always encouraging the guys, and he leads by not just voice but example as well. He's kind of a quarterback slash offensive lineman mentality, so to speak. He'll stick his face in the fan. You don't like to see that as a coach all the time, but he will stick his face in the fan to get guys going, just to get guys going.

These guys follow him, and they love him to death, and he's a great leader, and he's really done it his whole career. A warrior. When was the last time someone called Baker Mayfield a warrior?

All right, I like it. His new head coach, Sirius XM NFL radio, Todd Bowles. Do you hear the laughing in the background when he talked about sticking his face in the fan? Which is actually kind of funny, but it's not that far off with Baker Mayfield because the video of him headbutting offensive linemen last year. Do you remember he was doing it without a helmet? It went viral.

We talked about it here on After Hours. He definitely is tough. He fancies himself a lot tougher than most quarterbacks, I suspect. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Same division, though the Carolina Panthers are starting a rookie QB in Bryce Young.

He will actually make his first nationally televised appearance because the Panthers are on Monday Night Football, hosting Derek Carr and the Saints. So Bryce Young, what would you like to show peeps in your second NFL game? Just higher execution.

Just want to execute at a higher level. Just make sure we're still working a good operation and making sure we're executing and finishing, especially with drives. I think there was good stuff on film as well, just as a team and as a unit. For one reason or another, I don't think we executed when it was important. We didn't do all the things we wanted to that we needed to do to win the game.

So I think just tying everything together and executing is definitely going to be something that is area focused for me and for the entire team. The Panthers actually had 20 first downs in their game last week against the Falcons, but the turnovers killed them. Bryce Young was spreading the ball around. He hit eight different targets, and they had more than 10 minutes extra with the football, plus nine and a half minutes with the football, except that they had a bunch of turnovers.

So that was an issue. He threw a couple of interceptions. He was sacked a couple of times. So yeah, the Panthers would take a step forward and then a couple of steps back, but there were a lot of positives to take away from that Frank Reich offense with the number one overall pick. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Very little positive, if anything at all, to take away from the giant season opener in which they were skunked 40 to nothing. Daniel Jones and New York now having to move on and face a game on the road at Arizona.

I think just getting back to work, focusing on what's ahead of us and what we can control now, and that's the next opportunity. So I thought guys did a good job coming out ready to go today and attacking this week. Pick six off Daniel Jones. Another interception later that led to a short touchdown drive for Dallas. Not that he was alone.

There were plenty of mistakes to go around. Micah Parsons actually defending Daniel Jones as the Giants QB because he did get sacked seven times, hit another 12 times by the Cowboys D. Micah's got his own podcast called The Edge, and he's calling out the Giants offensive line. It's called protecting your guy. You know, something I thought the Giants should have done. I don't think Daniel Jones should have been in that game in the fourth quarter. I thought they should have protected him and pulled him out, and barring injury, their season would be over without Daniel Jones. The Bengals did the smart decision by pulling Joe Burrow saying, hey, we're going to submit, we're going to take our loss, and we're going to move on the next week and get better.

That's the best thing you can do. I do not agree with Daniel Jones staying out there until that last drive. I thought that was wrong. I thought it was deceiving. That's your franchise quarterback, and he's out there with the backup offensive line, still getting sacked and hit.

I just didn't understand. Maybe it was a proving moment by the Giants. I have no idea, a learning lesson, who knows, but I thought Daniel Jones should have got pulled out.

So technically, it's not Vincent. Micah Parsons might be my new favorite podcast host. From now on, I'm going to listen to The Edge with Micah Parsons. One more here while we're talking about the Dallas Cowboys because they host the Jets this weekend.

Of course, it will not include Aaron Rodgers, and that's disappointing for Mike McCarthy, who feels badly for his former QB. It's great to compete against people you care about. Him and I have been through a lot together. I have a tremendous amount of love for him, and this is tough.

I know he was very excited about this chapter of his life, and I was looking forward to seeing him this weekend. I think any time in this game, you can see how precious these opportunities are. Every game is such a special opportunity, and to compete in this league.

I think we're all feeling for him personally right now. The NFC version of QB news just sprinkling in some intrigue as we look ahead to week number two. We'll talk more about Eagles Vikings in the next hour of the show, and coming up next hour as well, the AFC version of QB news because Joe Burrow has a new haircut, and he explains why.

I don't know if we have a photo that we can share on our Twitter account after our CBS, but it's fairly eye-catching. In addition, Ryan Tannehill is done. He's over it.

He's done. And we'll hear from Mike Tomlin about – oh, nope, not Mike Tomlin. Not about quarterbacks. We'll hear from the rookies in the AFC, CJ Stroud, Anthony Richardson. How about that? But we do have some Mike Tomlin because it's a big matchup between the Browns and the Steelers this weekend, too. We got you covered on Twitter, on Facebook, on YouTube, here on After Hours, CBS Sports Radio. Oh, God.

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This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We are getting close to another kickoff to college football, too. So college football NFL could keep you posted up on the couch for more than 24 hours easily.

In fact, the better part of two days if that's what you wanted to do. And if you missed our conversation with Chris Venini of The Athletic, senior writer covering college football, we talked about the buzz out of Boulder, about the Buffaloes and how it's getting even louder and whether or not it's real or it's warranted, I should say. Also, about Texas and whether or not the Longhorns are truly back. About Alabama and why the Crimson Tide are now susceptible and weaker and not dominating anymore.

So a lot of good stuff there with Chris. But I also talked to him about this Michigan State investigation. Well, it's really not a Michigan State investigation. It's a Title IX investigation. The administration, the athletic department is supposed to remain outside of the investigation, not be involved with it, not impact it, not influence it in any way. It's certainly one that has caught a lot of attention around college football and really around sports because of Michigan State's track record and the Larry Nassar situation. If you remember with USA Gymnastics, he was a doctor with the national team and many young women who trained with the national team, but he was also a team doctor that worked in East Lansing with many of the Michigan State athletes.

And we now know, based on the fallout, that he was protected for years. And while the administration, the athletic department was at least partially alerted to what was happening, at least enough to investigate what was taking place there on campus with this doctor, some of the accusations, the claims, the cries for help fell on deaf ears or they were buried. And so naturally, when there is another accusation surrounding a Michigan State employee regarding sexual harassment or anything to do with inappropriate behavior in this arena, there's a lot more attention on it.

So Mel Tucker is suspended. And again, we talked about with Chris Venini and the prospects moving forward, but the interim head coach, Harlan Barnett, now has to lead his team forward into a weekend where they've got a game and they have to focus on the field. We had a team meeting on Sunday where I met with them and I told those guys that, hey man, we've got to all come together in this time of adversity and we have to be unified through the adversity so that we can, and we need all our leaders to lead, not only the coaches, but the leaders to lead. And I told them they lead by love, encouragement, accountability and discipline. So we have to lead.

We all have to lead. But it's shocking, right? And it's stunning and it's abrupt because the athletic department suspended Mel Tucker on Sunday night when some of the claims made against Tucker by a woman named Brenda Tracy, whose name you may know, she is an advocate for sexual assault awareness and an advocate for young women, really big in the Baylor investigation and the fallout that happened with Baylor going back a couple years. But she travels around to campuses across the country advocating for victims of rape and sexual assault. And her story is well documented. She shares her story publicly.

She's very active on social media. And so a story was put out in USA Today about, well, about Mel Tucker, but identifying Brenda Tracy as the one who's accusing him and now all of a sudden there's a whole different set of eyeballs on this. Tucker himself issued a statement Monday through his attorney. He says the sexual assault claims are baseless.

They're completely false. They did not harass her. They had an adult consensual relationship.

But he only got suspended after the story and some of the details were made public in USA Today. So that's where the question marks come in. And, of course, back to the actual football team and having to move forward. This is tough.

It's a tough situation for Barnett to be in because he's got to keep his players mentally focused amidst all these distractions. I'm meeting with all the players, all of them. Yesterday I got 27 in. I'm going for another 20-plus today because I told them on Sunday I want to meet with everybody, everybody in the room. I started with the players individually. I'll go into the coaches, the support staff, training, everybody, just so everybody is on the same page. Again, I keep talking about unity, keep talking about unity.

And that's part of, I think, helping people mentally when we're all together and they know they have somebody to lean on and trust in. I'm a dog. I'm a dog.

Be a dog. We're going to push through this as Spartans do, as Spartans will, right? Spartans will. Harlan Barnett, not an easy task in front of him, but he sounds like he has the right mentality. It's just ironic how this whole thing came about with Mel Tucker because he hired Brenda Tracy to speak to his football team to raise awareness about sexual assault, especially among college athletes. It's been a rampant problem. It's just now coming into the light. So she was there at the team's spring game last year and was even an honorary captain. And according to Tucker, a consensual relationship developed between the two of them, but she is saying that he harassed her and did not have her permission to do some of the things that he did and he said. According to the athletic department, the university's known about the claims since last December, and there was supposed to be a hearing to determine Tucker's status and whether or not he violated the misconduct policy. But it was only until the story came out in USA Today identifying Brenda Tracy and giving up more details that the athletic department took the step of suspending him. So that's the part that's fishy. That's the part that's suspicious. We'll see what happens with the hearing, and it's supposed to happen next month. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.